Keep a Weathered Eye on the Horizon
by ifeelsaintlike
Summary: Queen Elizabeth's death has not only left Arabella Turner in charge of the country, but in charge of finding her father, William Turner as well. Left with only a broken compass and a name Arabella must set out on a journey that will hopefully lead her to her long-lost father.
1. Prologue

She was nine. Arabella had just returned home from watching the sunset. It was her favorite time of the day. The sun created the most beautiful colors as it collided with the ocean. It was almost like it wanted to leave it's mark before it left for the night; like it was saying a final goodbye as if it wouldn't return the next day. She walked into her home and up the main staircase to her room. Just as she was about to open her door she heard something coming from her mother's bedroom. Arabella tiptoed quietly over to her mother's room down the hall as the noise grew louder until she could recognize it as crying. She gently nudged the door open to find her mother sobbing on the balcony. Her first instinct was to run over to her mother and wrap her little arms around the hysterical woman. After a minute she asked her what was wrong.

"He didn't come."

That was all she said.

"He didn't come."

Arabella didn't know who she was talking about and decided not to ask. They just sat there for hours as her mother cried until the grandfather clock in the corner of her room struck midnight. She then proceeded to stand up, wipe her tears off onto her handkerchief and walk towards her door.

"Arabella, darling, if you don't mind, I would rather this incident stay between just you and me. Thank you sweetie," she said quietly and exited the room.

After she left the little girl sat there trying to sort out what she had just witnessed. When she had gone through all of the possibilities she gave up and returned to her room. Little did she know, that day would be one of the most important days of her life.


	2. Chapter 1

"Princess, come quickly, please!"

Normally Arabella would have taken this as a warning sign that an enemy ship was spotted and heading towards the little island of Port Royal, but this time something was different about the tone the maid Georgina used.

Port Royal had once been a small city that had belonged to Great Britain, but after the old king began to raise taxes and limit the peoples rights tension between the people and the government increased. The people of Port Royal were the only ones to realize what was going on and so they began a revolution. At first it was just boycotts but eventually it became extremely violent. With the help of France, Port Royal was able to break free from tyrant rule and become its own country. In need of their own leader, they named the previous governor's daughter, Elizabeth Turner, their queen. As a young woman, Elizabeth had been through a lot including the death of her mother, and later the death of her beloved father, ad worst of all a kidnapping by pirates. For the next few years after she had been taken Elizabeth was constantly on the run from both pirates and the government. During this time the people were fighting their revolution so no one had really noticed that she had been missing. When she returned married and pregnant, that's when the questions began pouring in.

"Please Miss, come inside this moment. It's your mother."

Upon hearing this Arabella jumped up out of the hammock she had been swinging in and hurried inside through the back door. She was directed upstairs towards the master bedroom where her mother had been sleeping alone for the past nineteen years.

It's not that she never married, because she had, but Arabella's father had died before she ever had a chance to meet him. His name was William Turner and he had been a blacksmith, and her mother the mayor's daughter, but somehow they ended up together. Whenever she asked her mother why she had married a blacksmith she just said, "Love is a funny thing," and nothing more. After Arabella's father died her mother had never remarried.

When Arabella entered the big blue room she immediately saw Doctor Adrian amidst the household workers. Dr. Adrian was a short man who had a portly stomach which fit him just right. His hair had started to gray at the roots, although his curly mustache was still as black as the medicine he gave her mother. Arabella walked over to where he always stood, the right side of the bed blocking the window with the view of the ocean, and asked him the same question she had been asking for the past two years.

"How much longer?"

He looked at her with a smile that too obviously covered his anguish and told her what she did not want to hear.

"I think it's time to say goodbye."

Arabella moved closer to her mother's side as Dr. Adrian left the room and got down on her knees. Her mother reached out a feeble hand and wiped away the tears that had somehow escaped from her eyelids.

"Don't cry darling," she whispered, "everyone has to go eventually and this is my time."

Arabella simply nodded because she knew that as soon as she opened her mouth she wouldn't be able to stop crying and she didn't feel like crying in front of the company of the staff. They would just criticize how "un-princess-like" it was. So she kept those tears in the corners of her eyes.

And that was how they were left. Her mother stroking Arabella's hair as she kneeled and laid her head against her mother's breast listening to the soft sound of her heartbeat. The grandfather clock in the corner of her room struck ten and by that time the sun was gone and had been replaced by the stars. Her mother had fallen asleep so she climbed into the other side of the bed, fully dressed, and settled down beside her.

While Arabella was asleep she had the strangest dream about an odd man who talked in a most confusing way and sort of staggered about. He kept trying to tell her something but she couldn't understand him. His voice grew louder and angrier and soon there were more voices all yelling something unintelligible. Then her view started to spin and she was falling into the dark depths of an unknown ocean and broke the surface of the water as she awoke with a jolt.


End file.
